Rank the Rankings

College Search & Selection
24

<p>First of all Mtc, rankings cann change so wildly over the course of 1 year...or even over the course of 5 years. It takes a long time for a department with 50-75 professors to really rise or drop in the rankings. </p>

<p>Well, the USNWR requires the use of a code, but the magazine is availlable in every major bookstore. But here is a glimpse of their top 25 Poli-Sci programs:</p>

<ol>
<li> Harvard University (MA) 5.0 </li>
<li> Stanford University (CA) 4.9 </li>
<li> University of Michigan–Ann Arbor 4.8 </li>
<li> Princeton University (NJ) 4.7 </li>
<li> University of California–Berkeley 4.6 </li>
<li> Yale University (CT) 4.6 </li>
<li> University of California–San Diego 4.4 </li>
<li> Duke University (NC) 4.3 </li>
<li> University of Chicago 4.3 </li>
<li> Columbia University (NY) 4.2 </li>
<li> Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.2 </li>
<li> University of California–Los Angeles 4.2 </li>
<li> Ohio State University 4.0 </li>
<li> University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill 4.0 </li>
<li> University of Rochester (NY) 4.0 </li>
<li> University of Wisconsin–Madison 3.9 </li>
<li> Washington University in St. Louis 3.9 </li>
<li> Cornell University (NY) 3.8 </li>
<li> New York University 3.8 </li>
<li> University of Minnesota–Twin Cities 3.8 </li>
<li> Northwestern University (IL) 3.6 </li>
<li> Michigan State University 3.4 </li>
<li> Texas A&M University–College Station 3.4 </li>
<li> University of Illinois–Urbana-Champaign 3.4 </li>
</ol>

<p>The Gourman Report isn't even online. But in his last ranking (1999), he had the following order:</p>

<ol>
<li> Yale University 4.92</li>
<li> Harvard University 4.91</li>
<li> University of California-Berkeley 4.90</li>
<li> University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4.89</li>
<li> University of Chicago 4.87</li>
<li> Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4.86</li>
<li> Stanford University 4.84</li>
<li> University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.83</li>
<li> University of Minnesota-Twin Cities 4.82</li>
<li>Cornell University 4.80</li>
<li>Princeton University 4.78</li>
<li>University of California-Los Angeles 4.76</li>
<li>Northwestern University 4.75</li>
<li>University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 4.74</li>
<li>Columbia University 4.73</li>
</ol>

<p>Finally, the National Research Council (NRC) has one of the more reliable rankings. Unfortunately, it is outdated. The last one they did was in 1995. However, like I said, departments have not changed dramatically over the last few years. In fact, you will see some incredible similarities between the NRC of 1995 and the USNWR of 2005.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.stat.tamu.edu/%7Ejnewton/nrc_rankings/area39.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area39.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<ol>
<li> Harvard University 4.88</li>
<li> University of California-Berkeley 4.66</li>
<li> Yale University 4.60</li>
<li> University of Michigan-Ann Arbor 4.60</li>
<li> Stanford University 4.50</li>
<li> University of Chicago 4.41</li>
<li> Princeton University 4.39</li>
<li> University of California-Los Angeles 4.25</li>
<li> University of California-San Diego 4.13</li>
<li>University of Wisconsin-Madison 4.09</li>
</ol>

<p>To sum up, Harvard is usually considered to be #1 in Political Science. Cal and Michigan are usually considered the next two and Stanford and Yale follow closely. Those are usually considered the top 5 according to the rankings I have seen.</p>